The Three Faces of Lucky

In 1959, Lucky began to expand upon their basic 20,000 square foot grocery store footprint with the opening of the first “Lucky Discount Center”, a new concept which added a variety of non-food items – clothing, small appliances, outdoor products and more in combination with their regular supermarket departments. Many of the Discount Centers featured liquor and pharmacy departments as well

Late Fifties Lucky

By the late 1950's, Lucky had moved away from the use of gigantic pylons and the classic Loewy look and began to employ a wide variety of interesting designs, including this great "zig-zag" from Livermore, California in 1959. The "three squares" theme, however, continued to appear from time to time in modified form. Thanks to Scott of the great BIGMallRat site for identifying the location of this

Lucky Stores 1950's - Three Squares

I've often wondered if the famed 65-foot tall Lucky Stores pylons, designed by the great Raymond Loewy, were meant to signify "three square meals a day". The materials for subject meals, of course, were available at everyday low prices from your friendly neighbor - the local Lucky supermarket. Oh, well. Someone please fill us in if you know the story.Raymond Loewy was arguably the preeminent

Every Day's A Special Day

One more look at Thriftimart for now, this time a set of great interior views. These 1964 photos are from a brand new Thriftimart, which was located at 4030 Centinela Avenue in Culver City, California. I love the shield above the liquor department. Must have focus-grouped yellow tones for this one.

Thriftimart Class of '63

By the early 1960's, some new Thriftimarts featured toned-down "T's", possibly owing to zoning or cost reasons. Even so, the stores provided very nice examples of mid-century modern supermarket design, as these photos of new units from 1963 attest. The first photo is of a Santa Ana store (1308 Edinger Street), the second is from 1117 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley.

Thriftimart - The Tall T

Burning bright above the L.A. Basin at dusk were the red, 40-foot tall "T's" - the iconic logo of the late, great Thriftimart supermarket chain. A fondly-remembered sight of Angelenos (and selected San Diegans and Vegas-ites), these gigantic signs emerged on the local landscape through the 50's and 60's.The company that would eventually be named Thriftimart, Inc. was created in 1930 when a group

Alpha Beta - Keepin' It Local

One of the great features of Alpha Beta supermarkets from the early 50's through the 70's was the company's practice of showing the town's name on the face of the local stores. If there were multiple Alpha Beta markets in the same town, the name would often reflect the area of town, street or shopping center in which the store was located. It's suprising to me that over the years, no other retail

Alpha Beta - The Early Acme Years

In the early 1960’s, a number of interesting trends took hold in the grocery industry. First, the progression (which began in the 1940’s) towards ever larger footprints for new stores continued at an intensified pace. Most new stores built in the early sixties were at least 15,000 square feet, with many upwards of 20 or even 30,000. Secondly, supermarket chains began to diversify into new

A Gala Premiere - Studio City 1963

Here is the Grand Opening ad for the Studio City Market Basket store featured in the previous post. This ad appeared in the Pasadena Star-News on January 16, 1963. One of the interesting aspects of "Grand Opening" ads from these years is that they often featured photos or line drawings of the actual store in question. The line drawing in this case is a fairly accurate representation.

Market Basket Mayhem!!

Highly recommended viewing for fans of old supermarkets is the 1964 Jerry Lewis film “The Disorderly Orderly”. This film features le Jerry in typical fine form, wreaking havoc as he earnestly performs the duties of an entry-level job, this particular one being an orderly in a sanitarium. Our family digs this film, even though my wife is only 1/8th French!The climactic scene features Jerry and

Albertsons - At Your Service

Here's a 1966 photo showing an Albertsons store crew - an eager bunch, poised and ready to deliver a superior customer experience. The woman to the far left does appear to be somewhat anxious - perhaps she was new on the job. In the background is an archetypal "marina-style" Albertsons, as referred to in an earlier post.By this time, Albertsons' market presence had grown to cover nine western